NEW DELHI: Highlights of 2010-11 budget presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in parliament Friday 26th Feb, 2010:
* Clean energy cess of Rs.50 per tonne on coal produced in India
* Concessional duty of 4 percent for solar power rickshaw developed by Council of Scientific
and Industrial Research
* Concessional customs duty of 5 percent for cable TV operators for importing equipment
* Toys fully exempt from central excise duty
* Service sector tax retained at 10 percent to aid the introduction of GST; more services to be taxed
* Accredited news agencies exempt from service tax
* Net revenue gain Rs.22,500 crore
* Taxes on large cars and SUVs increased 2 percent to 22 percent
* Basic duty of 5 percent on crude oil restored
* Tax on cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco increased
* Rs. 26,000 crore revenue loss due to reduction of direct taxes
* Partial roll back of reduction in central excise duty
* Income up to Rs.1.6 lakh per year exempt from income tax;
up to Rs.5 lakh to be taxed at 10 percent; income of Rs.5-8 lakh to be taxed at 20 percent
and income above Rs.8 lakh to be taxed at 30 percent
* IT returns forms for individual tax payers to be further simplified
* Expenditure in 2010-11 estimated at 11,l8,749 crore
* Fiscal deficit estimated at 5.5 percent in 2010-11; an improvement of 1 percent over 2009-10
* Two more centralised tax processing centres to be set up in addition to the one at Bangalore
* National Social Security Fund created for workers in unorganised sector with allocation of Rs.1,000 crore
* Government to give Rs.1,000 for each National Pension Scheme account opened by
workers in the unorganised sector
* Exclusive skill development programme for the textile sector
* Fifty percent hike in allocation for schemes for women and child development
* Rs.4,500 crore allocated for ministry of social justice and empowerment, a hike of 80 percent
* Rs.2,600 crore allocated for ministry of minorities affairs
* Rs.1,900 crore for Unique Identification Authority of India
* Rs.147,344 crore allocated for defence
* 2,000 youth to be recruited in central paramilitary forces
* Draft Food Security Bill prepared and will be put in the public domain
* Allocation on primary education raised from Rs.26,800 crore to Rs.31,300 crore
* Banking facilities to be provided to all habitations with a population of 2,000 and more
* Rs.66,100 crore allocated for rural development in 2010-11; Rs.40,100 crore for National Rural Employment Scheme; RS.48,000 crore for Bharat Nirman
* Rs.1,270 crore allocated for Rajiv Awas Yojana for slum dwellers, up from Rs.150 crore, an increase of 700 percent with the aim of creating a slum free India.
* Forty-six percent of plan allocations in 2010-11 will be for infrastructure development
* Coal Regulatory Authority to be set up to benchmark standards of performance
* Allocation for new and renewable energy sector increased 61 percent from Rs.620 crore to Rs.1,000 crore in 2010-11
* National Clean Energy Fund to be established
* Rs.200 crore allocated as special package for Goa to prevent erosion and increase green cover
* Government committed to growth of SEZs
* Four-pronged strategy for growth of agricultural sector
* Rs.200 crore to be provided in 2010-11 for climate-resilient agricultural initiative
* Involvement of private sector in grain storage to continue for another two years
* In view of drought and floods, debt repayment period extended to June 2010
* Five more mega food processing projects in addition to 10 existing ones
* FDI flows in April-December 2009 $20.9 billion
* FDI policy to be made more user-friendly with one comprehensive document
* Apex level financial stability council to be set up for banking sector
* Indian Banking Association to give additional licences to private players
* Provision for further capital for regional rural banks
* Roadmap for reducing public debt in six months
* Implementation of direct tax code from April 2011
* Government actively engaged in finalising structure of general sales tax regime; hopes to implement it from April 2011
* New fertiliser policy from April 2010; will lead to improved productively and more income for farmers
* Economy stabilised in first quarter of 2009-10; strong rebound in second quarter; overall growth at 7.2 and could be higher when Q3 and Q4 are taken into account
* Export figures for January encouraging
* Hope to breach 10 percent growth mark in not too distant future
* Government set in motion steps to bring down food inflation
* Need to review stimulus package; need to make growth more broad-based
* India has weathered global economic crisis well; Indian economy in far better position than it was a year ago. In 2009 Indian economy faced grave uncertainty; delay in southwest monsoon had undermined agricultural production
* First challenge now is to quickly revert to 9 percent growth and then aim for double digit growth; need to make recovery more broad based.
* Second challenge is to make growth more inclusive; have to strengthen food security
* Third challenge is to overcome weakness in government's public delivery mechanism; a long way to go in this
Source: indiatimes.com
* Clean energy cess of Rs.50 per tonne on coal produced in India
* Concessional duty of 4 percent for solar power rickshaw developed by Council of Scientific
and Industrial Research
* Concessional customs duty of 5 percent for cable TV operators for importing equipment
* Toys fully exempt from central excise duty
* Service sector tax retained at 10 percent to aid the introduction of GST; more services to be taxed
* Accredited news agencies exempt from service tax
* Net revenue gain Rs.22,500 crore
* Taxes on large cars and SUVs increased 2 percent to 22 percent
* Basic duty of 5 percent on crude oil restored
* Tax on cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco increased
* Rs. 26,000 crore revenue loss due to reduction of direct taxes
* Partial roll back of reduction in central excise duty
* Income up to Rs.1.6 lakh per year exempt from income tax;
up to Rs.5 lakh to be taxed at 10 percent; income of Rs.5-8 lakh to be taxed at 20 percent
and income above Rs.8 lakh to be taxed at 30 percent
* IT returns forms for individual tax payers to be further simplified
* Expenditure in 2010-11 estimated at 11,l8,749 crore
* Fiscal deficit estimated at 5.5 percent in 2010-11; an improvement of 1 percent over 2009-10
* Two more centralised tax processing centres to be set up in addition to the one at Bangalore
* National Social Security Fund created for workers in unorganised sector with allocation of Rs.1,000 crore
* Government to give Rs.1,000 for each National Pension Scheme account opened by
workers in the unorganised sector
* Exclusive skill development programme for the textile sector
* Fifty percent hike in allocation for schemes for women and child development
* Rs.4,500 crore allocated for ministry of social justice and empowerment, a hike of 80 percent
* Rs.2,600 crore allocated for ministry of minorities affairs
* Rs.1,900 crore for Unique Identification Authority of India
* Rs.147,344 crore allocated for defence
* 2,000 youth to be recruited in central paramilitary forces
* Draft Food Security Bill prepared and will be put in the public domain
* Allocation on primary education raised from Rs.26,800 crore to Rs.31,300 crore
* Banking facilities to be provided to all habitations with a population of 2,000 and more
* Rs.66,100 crore allocated for rural development in 2010-11; Rs.40,100 crore for National Rural Employment Scheme; RS.48,000 crore for Bharat Nirman
* Rs.1,270 crore allocated for Rajiv Awas Yojana for slum dwellers, up from Rs.150 crore, an increase of 700 percent with the aim of creating a slum free India.
* Forty-six percent of plan allocations in 2010-11 will be for infrastructure development
* Coal Regulatory Authority to be set up to benchmark standards of performance
* Allocation for new and renewable energy sector increased 61 percent from Rs.620 crore to Rs.1,000 crore in 2010-11
* National Clean Energy Fund to be established
* Rs.200 crore allocated as special package for Goa to prevent erosion and increase green cover
* Government committed to growth of SEZs
* Four-pronged strategy for growth of agricultural sector
* Rs.200 crore to be provided in 2010-11 for climate-resilient agricultural initiative
* Involvement of private sector in grain storage to continue for another two years
* In view of drought and floods, debt repayment period extended to June 2010
* Five more mega food processing projects in addition to 10 existing ones
* FDI flows in April-December 2009 $20.9 billion
* FDI policy to be made more user-friendly with one comprehensive document
* Apex level financial stability council to be set up for banking sector
* Indian Banking Association to give additional licences to private players
* Provision for further capital for regional rural banks
* Roadmap for reducing public debt in six months
* Implementation of direct tax code from April 2011
* Government actively engaged in finalising structure of general sales tax regime; hopes to implement it from April 2011
* New fertiliser policy from April 2010; will lead to improved productively and more income for farmers
* Economy stabilised in first quarter of 2009-10; strong rebound in second quarter; overall growth at 7.2 and could be higher when Q3 and Q4 are taken into account
* Export figures for January encouraging
* Hope to breach 10 percent growth mark in not too distant future
* Government set in motion steps to bring down food inflation
* Need to review stimulus package; need to make growth more broad-based
* India has weathered global economic crisis well; Indian economy in far better position than it was a year ago. In 2009 Indian economy faced grave uncertainty; delay in southwest monsoon had undermined agricultural production
* First challenge now is to quickly revert to 9 percent growth and then aim for double digit growth; need to make recovery more broad based.
* Second challenge is to make growth more inclusive; have to strengthen food security
* Third challenge is to overcome weakness in government's public delivery mechanism; a long way to go in this
Source: indiatimes.com
